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INDIANAPOLIS – Often we hear that life in the NFL can be a bit unpredictable.
September 18, 2013 defines just that.
Off a one-possession loss to the Miami Dolphins, the Colts were in midweek preparation for a trip to the west coast to take on the defending NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.
The loss to Miami was a game the Colts felt got away and now they had the task of heading cross country to play one of the NFL's best teams.
To make matters worse, Chuck Pagano opened his Wednesday press conference with the announcement that tight end Dwayne Allen would become the third offensive player to be placed on injured reserve in the last week.
The mood inside the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center and around Colts Nation began to change just as rush hour was beginning.
At 5:23 p.m. EST, Colts Owner Jim Irsay fired off this tweet.
OMG...the Earth is SHAKING!!!!! Shock and AWE is coming VERY SOON!!!!!!!
A few minutes later, Irsay riled up his fan base with another suspense filling social media post.
This day of MONSTER TRADE,The Tidal Wave Of Deal making...Shocks the system of "..Didn't see THIS ONE COMING!!!!!!" Grig's Rollin' Dice!
At 6:19 p.m. EST, the deal became official and Trent Richardson was heading to Indianapolis in exchange for a first-round pick.
The shockwaves were sent across the NFL, and probably no one was as surprised as the man heading to Indy himself.
"This time last year I was just getting in this morning getting a physical and trying to meet new people," Richardson said on Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the trade.
"It was like, 'How did I get traded? What did I do to get traded? I can't believe I'm a Colt.' It didn't even hit me until the second game when I was in Jacksonville, like, 'I'm actually a Colt.' I never thought I'd be playing for the Colts. It's always been a dream and watching Edgerrin James, watching the great running backs, Marshall (Faulk), come through. Watching those guys, it's always been a dream to be a Colt. So when I finally got here, I was like, 'I still can't believe that I'm a Colt.'"
Richardson arrived to the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center on a Thursday morning prior to Week Three.
That Sunday, he plunged into the end zone on his first carry in a Colts uniform.
The No. 3 overall pick from the 2012 draft admits that at times it was overwhelming last year feeling like the game of catch up was never going to end.
"How I feel now is way different than I felt a year ago. It was so much confusion. It was so much, 'I need to know this, I need to know that. I can't study the other team, I just need to study my playbook. I just need to know where my eyes need to go. I need to try to listen to these calls so I can know this, know that," Richardson says.
"It was just so different with me just trying to learn, learn, learn. It wasn't really learning, it was like I just need to know, know, know, know. There wasn't any time to catch a breath. There wasn't any time to say, 'Whew, I'm a Colt."
Standing in front of his locker on Thursday afternoon, Richardson can now breathe a little.
The fumbles from Monday night were still eating at the Colts starting running back, but he did have one of his best games as a Colt from a yardage standpoint.
With a 169-yard output against the Eagles, the Colts put together their best ground performance since Richardson's first game in Indianapolis.
Can that snowball from here?
"I'm going to run hard consistently, and now to me it's just playing consistent," Richardson says.
"It's just me preparing and doing what I can do, just like I was just doing a few minutes ago. Me and Ahmad (Bradshaw), we were running wind sprints after practice, we just ran 14 of them. That's one thing we say we're going to do, we're going to be in better shape. We're not going to get fatigued. We're going to do everything we can to put the team on our back."
